Saturday, November 7, 2009

The BEAST's Castle

Here's something we've never seen before (unless you worked on the film)- the complete vertical pan background of the Beast's castle from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

This magnificent background art was incredibly difficult to re-assemble. The artists used digital layer multiplane effects. Panning from the bottom up, the gargoyles and statuary in front moved, as did layers of the castle, and clouds in the stormy sky!

Using Photoshop, I cut, pasted, layered and matched, re-creating the stunning artwork you see here.

To be perfectly honest, it's really unfinished. Although essentially complete, there are a couple of very small areas I'll come back and finish one day. In the meantime, I think the results are so incredible I decided to share it with you as a "work in progress."

BTW, the severely angled elements near the left top are positioned exactly as created by the artist and shown in the film. Being a pan shot, this creates some additional visual tension and drama.